What then followed was a period of "digestion" during 2000 to 2008, according to Bartels, when businesses figured out how to leverage the technology implemented during the boom.

The Wall Street crash in 2008 and the recession interrupted what would have normally been the beginning of the next eight-year boom cycle, Bartels said.

During the new cycle, now that servers and routers are commodity items and databases and ERP systems are part of companies' core IT infrastructure, companies are looking to invest in technology such as unified communications, business intelligence, analytics, service-oriented platforms and small mobile devices, Bartels noted.

"But the financial crisis had a big impact on capital spending," Bartels said. More than the general economic recession, the collapse of credit markets forced buyers to hold off spending plans out of fear that, if they ended up needing capital, they would not be able to borrow.

Now that financial markets are stabilizing, companies will most likely feel confident enough to get back to spending on tech. This week, major financial institutions like AIG, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase enjoyed upticks in shares as investors gain confidence that the worst of the recession is behind them, and those banks that got bailout money start to pay it back.

For tech, the good news is that every week brings at least one or two rosy market forecasts.

On Monday, Gartner said that it forecast global semiconductor capital equipment to surpass US$29.4 billion in 2010, a 76.1 percent increase from 2009 and a sign of expected demand. "The dramatic semiconductor industry recovery rate over the last three quarters has necessitated a renewed growth for equipment spending," said Jim Walker, research vice president at Gartner, in the report.